Beautiful Baby
by MissLauraGrey
Summary: Max Stella/Sara Dillon - a collection of oneshots based on the milestones of Baby Stella.


**First Impressions**  
Summary: Max Stella/Sara Dillon - a collection of oneshots based on the milestones of Baby Stella.  
Pairing: Max/Sara  
Rating: K+  
Author Note: Out of the entire Beautiful series, Max and Sara were always my favourites, and I was sad that we never got to meet Baby Stella, so I thought, in case any of you were in the same boat as me, that I'd write this little collection to satisfy my curiousity, hahaha!

Chapter One: First Serious Talk

Being a Brit, I'd never really had much of an issue with the winters in New York. Yes, they were bloody freezing and the high-rise buildings seemed to make the icy wind much more intense, but really, the winters here were like the spring back in the UK, so I couldn't much complain. Having said all that, I was very glad when I stepped inside my apartment to the warmth that seemed to envelope me. Sara was here.

Very early in our relationship, I'd realised she liked to please people. She was like one of those 1950's housewives, only infinitely sexier. She would just _be_ at my place when I came home from work, cooking dinner or doing some paperwork; being the company I'd never realised my life was missing all these years. I couldn't imagine coming back to anything but the smell of something in the oven, or the music playing on the radio, or the sound of her pen hitting the table as she considered something she was reading.

But though the lights were on, the house was warm, and there was something quietly simmering away on a back burner ... Sara was nowhere. I closed the door loudly, heading towards the kitchen to peek at the sauce that smelled like chicken, and turned the heat down ever so slightly, before moving down the corridor to the bedroom. The light was on there too, the door slightly ajar.

"Sare?" I gave the door a knock, but peeked in anyway. She glanced up at me with a small smile, dressed in her navy pencil skirt and purple shirt she'd worn to work. She was perched on the edge of the bed, staring at the photos on the wall; what had began as an idea, had turned into obsession, and the photos now completely dominated the wall. All of them, even the dirtiest of dirty photos were up there. She wasn't so shy about any of it anymore. "You okay?" Even from where I stood, something felt ... _off._ She wasn't doing anything in particular, just staring at the wall. I moved slowly, sitting beside her. She was pretty pale, and my first thought was that she was unwell. She'd been sick a few times last month too, and though it had passed, I was beginning to wonder if there was something else going on.

"We haven't really been together that long, have we?" she said quietly, sounding unsure. I rose an eyebrow, my heart hammering. Was she about to call it quits? I inwardly slapped myself for being such a wimp. _At least hear her out. _

"About seven, eight months ..."

"Right. It's really no time at all ... I mean, if we were _married ... _God, I'm not ready to be married yet ... who gets married after seven or eight months of dating? We haven't even been dating that whole time! The first few months we were just _fucking_ ... so, really, five months we've been dating .. and that's too soon to get married ... " she seemed to blabbering to herself, but I couldn't understand where her train of thought was going. Though I had every intention of marrying her, and I knew she was it for me, she was right; we were too new at this relationship to get married right away. So ... what was this about? I tried to tune back in to her words, " ... and my mom will murder me. She'll think I'm nuts. Oh my God, my dad! He'll flip. I don't even know ... does he know about us? Last time I spoke to him, I'd broken things off with Andy, and I was moving to New York ... five months later and I'm pregnant? He's going to have a fucking heart attack. I'm going to kill my own dad. Oh god, I feel sick." Suddenly, the speech seemed to dissolve. My whole head started to dissolve. My thoughts, and words, and memories, and vision and ... it all started to become one. Did she just say .. ?

"Pregnant?" I swear to God, my voice had never sounded so squeaky and high.

She paled even further, realising what she'd said and closed her eyes regretfully. "Oh, shit. I'm sorry .. I didn't mean that to come out like that ..." When she opened her eyes, they were shining with tears. "I'm pregnant," Sara whispered to me, nodding her head slowly. I swore right there and then that this moment I would never forget, for the rest of my life. The way she sounded so vulnerable, scared, but with an edge of excitement that she was trying hard to squash. The way her pupils dilated, how her hand ghosted over her still-flat stomach, how it reached for my hand. She ran her thumb over mine - her hands were icy, and shaking badly.

I swallowed for a few moments, collecting my thoughts. Pregnant? How? "I don't understand ..." We were always so careful. Both of us had demanding careers, both of us had social lives we weren't ready to give up yet, and both of us were so new at this.

"I don't either. I've felt so nauseous, and then ... I told you about my missed periods, how I thought it was stress ... and I went to the doctors this morning, and they done a test, and he's just called me to tell me ... I'm three months along, Max ... "

So, she was a third through it already? Jesus. I felt nauseous myself. But strangely enough, not upset about this. I mean, I loved Sara with everything I had. I knew she was my forever. I knew I wanted to marry her. So, we were doing the kid thing a bit early, but honestly? It didn't bother me.

"Please say something ..." she moaned, her eyes seeking out mine, begging me to be okay with this.

"Where the hell are we supposed to fit a buggy - I mean, pushchair - in this apartment. We're probably going to have to move. There's no nursery .. or ... jeez, we need to get a cot, and diapers ... I'll need to sort out my workload, maybe we can hire someone else? Just for a little bit, until we get things sorted, you know?"

"You .. wh-what?" Sara's big, brown eyes stared at me. I hadn't even realised I'd jumped to my feet, and forced myself to sit back down. Taking her hand in mine, I met her eyes. "You're okay with this?" she asked me. "Tell me the truth, Max. I need to know for sure ..."

"I'm absolutely _terrified_. But I love you. And I know we're going to do this right ..."

"I'm glad this is good news. Because we have a scan on Friday."

_First thoughts? I'm going to try and do as many little milestones as humanely possible, and not completely boring ... next one up is going to be the baby scan ... and please let me know if there's a specific moment you'd like to see so I can try and include it. :)_


End file.
